Civil War Beer Bottle

Today we think of beer naturally being put up in bottles, but that was not always the case in this country. Prior to 1890, laws dictated that bottle could not be bottled at the brewery. It was kegged and transported to a bottling house. Until the mid 1870s, beer bottles were rare. Beer, because of the nature of its ingredients was prone to spoil if not probably bottled and or sealed carefully and under controlled conditions. Sanitation was a problem, especially since the product was not bottled at the location it was made. Beer was to be drunk at room temperature, but storage was best in a cool place. Loss were great. Bottles not always recycled, but when they were cleaning them out was problematic. These difficulties contributed to limiting the amount of beer produced in bottles until the late 1870s.